Tobacco Seller Punished for Killing Nuclear Elk

In order to understand why a White Swan man must pay $33,500, there's something you need to understand about the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.As a nature reserve, it has its own herd of elk. The reserve is so large the herd has plenty of grazing ground and is contained with fences.

A man who owns smoke shops (closest one to Tri-Cities is in Mabton) and lives in White Swan (west of Yakima) went hunting in the reserve back in fall 2011.

Ironically, his punishment appears to be more about knocking down a fence and driving a pickup on land prohibited to motor vehicles. His fine does not appear too cover the three elk he and three friends shot.
The man's defense was that as a member of the Yakama Nation he had a right to hunt the deer. Perhaps the courts agreed with him.

The exact spot he was at within Hanford is called the Fitzner/Eberhardt Arid Lands Ecological Reserve (ALE).